Neighbourhood
by Belle's Noir
Summary: Harry's lived with his abusive family his whole life, he's always been known as a freak. You'd think his uncle would be happy about being proved right but when Harry accidentally throws fire, he's angrier than ever. Can Harry trust the man that promises to take him away from it all when he's not even really a man? A pre-slash prequel. Sequel will be written if this is well received


_Hello! This is set before Phoebe and Cole met but after Cole has joined the DA. This is set completely in the Charmed!Verse so there's only witches, no wizards. However Harry's life will still be very similar to HP!Verse. He's still an orphan, still raised by the Dursley's and he's still special to all the witches and demons though no prophecies involved, they're somewhat of a cop-out in my opinion._

_My other fics hate me at the moment but I don't wanna stop writing altogether so I'm focussing on one-shots. This is more of a one-shot/prequel/prologue. If it's liked then it may be continued but for now it's just this._

_Hope you like it!_

_Hanna xoxo_

'_-,-'-,-'-,-'-,-'-,-'_

_Faded pictures in my scrapbook  
Just thought I'd take one more look  
And recall when we were all  
In the neighbourhood_

Harry frowned and moaned out in his sleep as he tossed and turned on his small bed. Even asleep, Harry could tell something was wrong with his body. He felt like he was burning up. Which he was. If anyone in 1323 Prescott Street had cared enough to check, they'd have found that, as he slept, Harry had a temperature so high it should have killed him.

But no one in that house cared enough to check on the freak in the smallest bedroom. They barely remembered he was there half the time. Unless they needed somebody to blame for something.

Harry moaned out again, this time louder than before, and his hands started to twitch on reflex, his hands currently being the hottest part of Harry's body. This had been going on for months now. Ever since Harry's sixteenth birthday he had been having these restless nights. First it was just once every few weeks or so, then last month it turned into once or twice a week and now for the past four nights Harry had barely rested due to the extreme temperatures invading his system.

He might not have rested but he was asleep and because of that he didn't hear the grumblings of his Uncle Vernon as Harry's third and loudest moan woke the man from his own slumber.

Vernon Dursley was a rather large man with an enormous bushy moustache and no neck. He was also not a very nice man by anyone's standards. He looked down his nose at almost everyone. If they weren't deemed 'normal' enough for him then he refused to acknowledge them unless he absolutely had to.

His wife, Petunia Dursley, was of a completely different appearance but different did not mean better and her personality left about as much to be desired as Vernon's. She was a thin, frail looking woman with a rather long neck and while that is a style that looked elegant on some people, it just made Petunia look like an underfed horse. But in the case of both those people, their lack of appealing features could easily have been overlooked had they at least had something good on the inside. But they were the most ignorant people anyone could ever have the misfortune to meet and they'd raised their son to be exactly the same. Maybe even worse.

And unfortunately for Harry, he had to live with them. Now Harry was an honest to God good person and it was lucky his time with the Dursleys had done nothing to change that. At least not yet. There were only so many beatings a child/teenager could take before something inside them snapped. Something that was impossible to fix.

Harry moaned again just as Vernon slammed open the door to Harry's room and started bellowing. Harry jumped and woke at the loud noise, instinctively holding his hands out in a defensive position. However it was what appeared in Harry's right hand that caused Vernon's silence as Harry, with his eyes closed again, tried to slow his heart rate down.

Harry opened his eyes at the sudden quiet, wondering what in the world could actually make his uncle shut up. As soon as he saw it he wished he kept his eyes closed.

Harry stared at the ball of fire revolving in his open palm for half a second before the fact that his hand was _on fire_ registered in his mind and he yelped, shaking his hand reflexively. The fire ball shot off in the direction of the curtains.

The sixteen year old only had a second to gulp before his uncle started yelling again. Harry didn't even bother to brace himself for the fists and kicks that came flying in his direction. There wasn't a point in trying to defend himself. In fact, Harry found himself struggling to find a point for anything in his life. He felt something inside himself shatter at the realisation that as far as the rest of the world was concerned, Harry Potter was worthless.

It was a bitter pill to swallow and Harry could have sung as he felt the darkness encroaching on his mind. Things were always peaceful when he was unconscious. It gave him a rest from the thoughts going round and around inside his head.

'_I wonder if he thought to put out the curtains._" Was the last thing that crossed Harry's mind before oblivion claimed him.

'-,-'-,-'-,-'-,-'-,-'-,-'

Cole Turner frowned as he watched the young boy lying in the hospital bed. As a demon and a lawyer, Cole had seen many foul things in the hundred odd years he'd been alive, he'd even done most of them, but child abuse always made him itch.

His human half couldn't understand how a person could do that to a child in their care. Even his demon half rebelled at the idea of someone harming their family. Demons took the protection of their clans very seriously. Especially their young.

It had, oddly enough, been a fire that saved this boys life. His uncle had almost killed him but luckily a neighbour had seen the flaming curtains and called for help. The fire department had turned up to a small fire and a barely breathing boy.

And Cole was going to make sure the uncle paid for what he had done. He just didn't know what was more appropriate, the demon way or the lawyer way. Either way would be satisfying.

Cole was pulled out of his thoughts by a quiet yet pained moan. He looked down just in time to see eyelids flutter open, revealing the most intensely green eyes he had ever seen. A part of him wondered how it was possibly for something to naturally be that colour.

The boy saw him and opened his mouth to say something but Cole held up a hand, stopping him before reaching to the bedside table and passing the boy a cup of water and a straw.

The boy shot him a grateful look and began to take small sips.

"Where am I?" Asked a hoarse voice as the cup was placed back onto the bedside table.

"You're in the hospital. Your uncle almost killed you." Cole told him gently. The boy didn't look at all surprised by that, just resigned. He'd been expecting it. "My name is Cole Turner. I work for the District Attorney's office; your uncle has been arrested. There is a hearing in about three weeks. He'll be held in custody until then."

Harry nodded, somewhat relieved he wouldn't have to put up with his uncle much longer, though it probably meant he'd be sent to a children's home but that was better than being stuck with the Dursleys.

"Do you remember what happened?" Cole asked softly.

Harry froze as he remembered the fire. A fire he'd somehow caused.

"C-candles." Harry stuttered, thinking fast. "I'd fallen asleep without blowing out my candles. They must have caught the curtains."

Cole frowned. In the two days Harry had been unconscious, the fire department had been left scratching their heads over what had caused the minor blaze. They'd have noticed if there had been candles. Humans were hardly better than apes in Cole's opinion but they weren't quite that oblivious. The boy was lying but why?

Harry could see the doubt on the older man's face and changed the subject quickly. "When did you say my uncle's trial was?"

"Three weeks." Cole answered, allowing the subject to be changed but making a mental note to ask again.

"Why did they set a date when I was still unconscious?" Harry asked with a frown. "Don't you need me to testify?"

"Your testimony would help but in this instance it isn't really necessary. Your uncle was caught in the act. The only thing the prosecution were waiting to know was if this was going to be tried as a homicide or not."

"What… what happens to me now?" Harry asked hesitantly.

"That depends." Cole told him, watching his reactions closely. "If this was a one off situation then you are free to go back to your aunt and cousin."

Harry's blood ran cold and his eyes widened in horror.

"This isn't the first time, is it?" Cole asked with a gentleness that surprised him. He already knew the answer but needed to hear the boy say it.

Harry gulped audibly and had to bit his tongue to hold in the automatic response that the Dursleys had beaten into him. He'd never told anyone about his home life. No one had ever cared enough to ask. Not even his teachers. Even when he went to school with an eye swollen shut and fingerprint bruises up and down one arm. No one had ever bothered to bloody ask if he was alright!

Anger began slowly pumping through his veins. Anger that his _family_ had hated him for no reason, had almost killed him. Anger that no one had ever cared enough to notice. He could feel his body start to heat up again. Why him? What had he ever done to deserve the life his relatives gave him? Why was he so easy to ignore?

Cole watched as the boy got lost in his own thoughts. He could see the impotent rage in the otherworldly eyes.

"Hey." He said, trying to bring him back to the here and now. "Harry?" He reached out and put a hand on him shoulder.

Harry flinched at the unexpected touch, bringing his hands up defensively. There was no pause this time, the fire ball was instantaneous, flying directly at the unsuspecting lawyer.

At the last possible second the man ducked, causing the fire ball to hit the wall and huge scorch marks to appear as a result.

Harry stared, his body frozen in terror, as the attractive man before him growled at him and morphed into… into something Harry couldn't describe.

He became impossibly taller, almost seven foot. His skin became darker, red with black markings. He wasn't human.

The… thing growled again, jolting Harry into action. He quickly jumped off the opposite side of the bed, adrenalin keeping any pain from making itself know, and pushed his back against the wall. What the Hell was going on? People that became monsters and fire that shot from his hands? He began to tremble as he realised there was no escape; the thing was between him and the door. He'd never make it in his weakened state and he had no idea how to make the fire come back.

Belthazor slowly walked to the end of the bed, removing and obstacles between him and the boy. He wasn't too sure what was going on, the confusion and terror in those green eyes was too vivid to be faked, but he was going to find out. He reached out to grab the boys arm so he could take them somewhere else, somewhere they could talk, only to blink in surprise as the boy cringed and shimmered three feet away. Slowly he changed back into his human form and watched with avid curiosity as the boy began to panic, who the Hell was this kid?

How had he done that? Harry's mind screamed. He'd expected to feel those giant red hands begin clawing at him, maybe choking him. He hadn't expected the strange feeling of becoming less. It had lasted barely a second but the feeling of becoming lighter and _moving_ was so strange he'd opened his eyes. Only to find he had moved, three feet to the side and further away from the door. That's when he really started to panic.

"Harry?" Cole said in the most unthreatening tone he could manage. "Harry, calm down. I'm not going to hurt to."

Harry barely heard the words and could only vaguely understand them but the soft sound calmed him slightly. It was so different from how people normally spoke to him.

"Harry, calm down before you do something that hurts one of us." Cole said, firmly but with care.

Harry sank down the wall until his knees were pressed against his chest.

"Wh-what am I?" He managed to choke out. His wrapped his arms around his legs in the hope to stop the trembling. He didn't like this. He didn't like how out of control he felt. This was so surreal. If it wasn't for the scorch mark marring the hospital white walls he'd think he just imagined the last few minutes. But it was there, ugly and undeniably real.

"I don't really know." Cole answered and he crouched down next to the huddled figure. It wasn't a lie really. He honestly didn't know, though he did suspect the boy was at least part demon. However he didn't really want to use the word demon when the boy was already half way to a heart attack. "Harry, was this why your uncle attacked you? Did you do something unusual?"

Harry nodded haltingly, he didn't want to admit this to a stranger but it felt good to finally have someone that at least seemed to care, though he was still rather frightened of the man that could change into a monster at will. Slowly he told the full truth about what happened the night of his uncle's arrest. He even mentioned how his temperature had been fluctuating.

"I proved them right." Harry said with a bitter laugh. He was almost completely relaxed now, just sitting on the floor of a hospital room with a man who turned into a thing that could snap him like a twig. Though his anger at the world was once again licking at his insides like the fire he had conjured. Who where they to decided he was worthless?

"What do you mean?"

"They always said I was a freak. Looks like they were right."

"Do you think they know what you are?" Cole asked, curiously despite himself. The Demon Clans took the protection of their young seriously; whoever had left this boy with mortals would be killed if they were ever found.

"Why would they? They're _normal_."

Cole frowned at the way Harry said the word 'normal'. It wasn't bitterness against his situation; there was no longing in it. It was like he had something against the word. Cole put it to the back of his mind, inwardly promising to think more on it later.

"Harry, if your… abilities, come from the same place mine do, which they probably do, then you got them from your parents." Harry looked at him sharply, a mixture of hope and derision in his eyes. "Who are your parents, Harry?"

Harry took a deep breath; he didn't like talking or even thinking about his parents anymore, not since his Aunt Petunia had finally told him something about them when he was ten. "Lily was my Aunt's sister though they hated each other, when she was seventeen she ran away. No one heard from her for about four years, they didn't even know if she was alive. One day she turned up on my Aunt's doorstep and passed her a baby and a birth certificate, I was barely a week old. She ran off again before my Aunt could say anything. Her body was found a week later. I don't know who my father is, no one does."

Cole frowned. He had no idea what to make of that. He'd bet money on the boy's father being a demon but that didn't explain how he'd ended up getting a young mortal woman pregnant. It was virtually unheard of. Cole was the only demon/human hybrid in existence and here was the possibility of another. The fact he might have found someone like him warmed him more than it should have.

"What happens now?" Harry asked in a small voice. He didn't know what this would mean for him. Obviously he wasn't completely human and at the moment he wasn't all that safe to be around. He threw fire when startled. He couldn't exactly go to a children's home.

Inwardly, he admitted that he wanted to stay with Cole. At least he had a vague idea of what exactly Harry was as he was something similar. He was also the first person to show Harry any sort of kindness.

Little did he know that the older man was having similar thoughts. Despite his hybrid status, Cole had been fully accepted by his mother's Clan but he didn't know which Clan Harry might belong to. He would just have to take him in himself. Cole couldn't even contemplate the idea of abandoning the boy, demonic customs demanded that the fledgling be protected and taught.

"You'll stay with me."

Harry gaped at the man. Was he serious? Why would a stranger do that for him?

"I have the room and I can afford it. It shouldn't be too hard to convince a judge to give me custody of you." He could see the boy was tempted but apprehensive so he added the one thing that would guarantee Harry's agreement. "And I can teach you to control your powers."

The hope in Harry's eyes was almost painful to see.

"Really?"

Cole just nodded, it was true after all and if the underworld gained a new ally then that was just a bonus. Corruption came naturally to a demon.

'-,-'-,-'-,-'-,-'-,-'-,-'

Prue Halliwell was surprised by the sombre atmosphere that greeted her as she walked into the kitchen. There wasn't a single morning person in the family but they normally had more energy than this. Her sisters, Piper and Phoebe, were sitting at the kitchen table staring mournfully into their coffees.

"What's going on?" She asked cautiously. A demon attack would have them running round trying to stop them; this was like someone had died.

"Do you remember that fire down the street about a week ago?" Piper said instead of answering, her voice sounding wet with tears.

"Yeah, it was the Dursleys, wasn't it?"

"Yeah," Phoebe answered this time, she too sounded like she was holding back tears. "The fire started in the nephew's room."

Prue scoffed, she like everyone else on the street had heard the stories about the Dursley's nephew. "Why am I not surprised? He always was a hooligan."

In response to this Piper just bowed her head further while Phoebe stared at her eldest sister with narrowed, red rimmed eyes.

"When the fire department got there, they found Vernon beating the boy to death." Phoebe told her through clenched teeth.

"What?" Prue asked, shocked. She'd always thought the boy needed a firm hand but that was appalling.

"There's an article about it in the paper." Phoebe picked up the article in question and began reading aloud. "'A lifetime of abuse hidden behind a carefully constructed web of lies. Each story told was designed to not only ensure that people ignored the telltale signs of abuse but were unsurprised by any injury the child was seen with.' Not a single thing the family told us about the boy was true."

"Looking back, it's sort of obvious, isn't it?" Piper said, still staring into her coffee cup. "I mean, he was so quiet and polite."

"How did no one see this?" Phoebe asked, throwing the paper back onto the table. "How did _we_ not see this? We're meant to see things others don't, we're meant to try and help."

"Hey!" Said Prue defensively, automatically reacting to the accusation in Phoebe's tone even though it wasn't solely directed at her. "We're meant to notice demonic things, supernatural things. It's not our fault we didn't see this."

Phoebe stared at her sister in disgust. Even Piper was a little surprised at how callous their sister was being about this.

"Just because we deal with demonic problems doesn't mean we have the right to be ignorant to human suffering. We're meant to protect the innocent and we let this happen in our own street. Did you ever, even once, actually see him to anything wrong? Did anyone? I didn't and I still just took their word for it. We all did." Phoebe stated vehemently. She looked at her sister's with eyes full of accusation and self recrimination. "And I'll never forgive myself for that." She added softly as she walked out of the kitchen.

Prue gazed at Piper. "You don't blame us for this, do you?" She asked. "You know she's over-reacting?"

Piper looked back, her eyes damp with tears and regret. "I don't think this is solely our fault. But I do think we could have done more, looked closer." She sighed deeply. "And I don't think Phoebe's over-reacting, at least not from her point of view. She has visions of people that need help and they aren't always innocents that need saving from the supernatural. How many people has she stopped from being hit by a car? She just doesn't understand why she didn't see this when it was happening practically in our front lawn. No one ever tried to help him, even just as kid lost and going of the rails, we all just labelled him as a lost cause because that's was that animals told us. We _should_ have looked closer, we always have before, so why didn't we this time?"

With that Piper left the room as well, leaving her older sister to her own thoughts.

Prue still didn't believe this was their fault, they had enough responsibility. They couldn't be expected to save everyone, stop every monster. She ignored that voice in the back of her head telling her she had plenty of opportunity to save this person, if only she'd been less judgemental. The voice sounded oddly like Phoebe.

There was no way they could have known. Was there?

_Faded pictures in my scrapbook  
Just thought I'd take one more look  
And recall when we were all  
In the neighbourhood_

**Review**


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